BALETIUM
(Valesio) Apulia, Italy.
Located
by Pliny (
HN 3.101) between Lupiae (Lecce) and Caelia
(Ceglie Messapica), in the same place in which Balentium appears in the
Peutinger Table. The name is found
as Valetium in Mela (2.4). Silver coins of the Tarentine
type dating from about 350 B.C. with the Messapian
legend Balethas or Valethas are attributed to the city.
The ruins of the city are found in the section of Agro
di Torchiarolo called Valesio 2 km N of S. Pietro Vernotico. The Provincial Museum at Brindisi preserves
numerous Messapian inscriptions and funerary material
from Baletium.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
W. Smith,
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, I (1856) 375 (E. H. Bunbury);
RE VIII.1
(1955) 259-60; B. V. Head,
Historia Numorum (1911)
51; M. Mayer,
Apulien (1914) 78; K. Miller,
Itineraria
Romana (1916) 362; O. Parlangeli,
Studi Messapici
(1960) 124.
F. G. LO PORTO
